Black as the pupil of an eye, sucking at light
like the pupil of an eye, I love you, far-sighted night.
Give me the voice to sing of you, godmother of every hymn,
you in whose hand lie the bridles of the four winds.
Calling on you, extolling you, I am no more than
a shell where the sea-swell goes on roaring.
Night! I have looked long enough into human eyes.
Now, emblaze me, make ash of me, black-sun-night!
Черная, как зрачок, как зрачок, сосущая
Свет — люблю тебя, зоркая ночь.
Голосу дай мне воспеть тебя, о праматерь
Песен, в чьей длани узда четырех ветров.
Клича тебя, славословя тебя, я только
Раковина, где еще не умолк океан.
Ночь! Я уже нагляделась в зрачки человека!
Испепели меня, черное солнце — ночь!
«Goldfinch, friend, I'll cock my head — / let's check the world out, just me and you: / this winter's day pricks like chaff; / does it sting your eyes too? Boat-tailed, feathers yellow-black, / sopped in colour beneath your beak, / do you get, you goldfinch you, / just how you flaunt i...»
«I can’t submit myself to man. / Who’d choose to be a slave? / We judge each other all life long — / and then? A lonely grave. I can’t submit myself to God, / because I love Him so. / For God has set me on this road — / where else am I to go? I tear the nets that bind mankind ...»
«No, I will never make my peace. / There’s truth in all my curses. / I won’t forgive, won’t throw myself / into the iron embraces. Like everyone, I’ll die, I’ll kill — / ruin myself, like everyone — / but I refuse to stain my soul / by justifying what goes on. When death i...»
«For many days along the river Ocean / With open sail, towards the blurry East / To predetermined land we are in motion, / The singing waves get tired in the mist. The eye of ending day is peeping crimson / And now far away we see the sight / Of sleeping land. And shading to horizon / Th...»